Hari looked at Michael across the tea-stained tablecloth in the cheap café across the road from Swansea beach. The bay was rimed in frost on this early February day. He’d come for Meryl.
Meryl had been home for yet another visit to Father; it was good to see him and his daughter growing close, but now it was time for Meryl to go back to the farm and her schooling. Hari forced herself to break the silence that had come between her and Michael.
‘Why did you want to see me alone, Michael?’
He shrugged, ‘I borrowed a little car and managed to get some petrol. This visit I thought I’d save you the bother of driving to Carmarthen.’
‘But you asked to meet me first, why?’ She took a deep breath, she knew they were attracted to each other, she felt drawn to Michael more and more each time she saw him. Now that Meryl came regularly to see Father Hari had spent a great deal of time with Michael. She knew she cared for him and knew it would never work.
‘I could never live in the country. I love my job in Bridgend so much I couldn’t leave it.’ Today she had learned that Germany had suffered its first defeat of the war, Stalingrad having at last fallen after months of fighting; the Germans were in retreat. It was good news but news she felt unable to share with Michael.
‘My little sister has enjoyed her visit to Swansea,’ she said awkwardly. It was true: Meryl visited the munitions as often as she was in Swansea; she loved the business of the office, the radio signals, the codes, loved it all.
She had picked up the codes with remarkable swiftness, her young mind making mincemeat of what Hari had struggled so hard to learn.
‘And yet Meryl thinks of the farm as her home. I’m a town girl to the soles of my feet,’ Hari said casually, hoping to deflect what he was about to say but realizing he was going to speak his mind anyway.
‘I’m falling in love with you, Hari.’ He rested his hand on hers across the table and she looked down into her cold cup of tea without seeing it.
‘It’s no good,’ she said, ‘there’s so much wrong, the timing is all wrong. There’s the war, my father, my job and, not the least, Meryl.’
‘She’s only a child.’
‘Wake up Michael, she’s sixteen, she’s grown into a woman. Haven’t you noticed?’
‘Physically she might have changed but she’s still a girl, she’ll fall in love many times before she settles down.’
‘You don’t know her like I do.’
‘Hari, this isn’t about Meryl, it’s about you and me.’
She felt his hand press on hers and she turned her fingers to clasp his. ‘Just leave it for now, Michael, please, I’ve enough to worry about with my father and work and Kate and… well, I can’t handle any more.’ She stood up. ‘I’m going home to get Meryl ready for the trip, give us an hour and then come for her and for heaven’s sake don’t mention—’ she waved her arm—‘any of this.’
She walked away quickly before she gave in to his pleading eyes. Her heart was pounding, she felt more than attracted to Michael and she was enchanted by his hardly discernible lisp on certain words. She knew he shouldn’t draw attention to himself, he was half German and shouldn’t be in this country at all. He had risked a great deal to come to talk to her in Swansea.
Meryl had already packed her small case. Hari smiled as she saw them sitting together, father and daughter, Meryl’s head bent over the newspaper as she read out the daily news.
‘Father! Some more American soldiers and airmen are to be stationed just outside Swansea.’
‘Aren’t there enough of them here already?’ Father’s voice was laconic. He glanced at Hari in the doorway and winked. ‘You know what they say, girl, don’t you? The Americans are overpaid over here and over…’
‘Father!’ Hari tried not to laugh, her father was used to the soldier’s life but rough talk that was normal in the trenches wouldn’t do in a respectable house of girls. She glanced at her watch.
‘Do you mind if I go to see Kate and the baby, Meryl?’
Her sister looked up at her with a bright face. ‘Go on you, Michael is coming for me soon.’
Hari forced a smile. ‘I might not be back so say hello for me.’
‘I will.’ Meryl’s smile widened.
Hari kissed them both and left the house because she didn’t think she could bear to see Michael and not throw herself into his arms and promise to go anywhere on earth with him. She felt tears in her eyes and it had started to rain, cold sleety rain that stung her face, and the rain mingled with her tears and ran coldly down her cheeks.